The green credentials of Dundee’s proposed £325 million biomass plant were questioned despite applicants Forth Energy claiming it would produce a negligible amount of air pollution.
Friends of the Earth Tayside also believed the public are paying for First Minister Alex Salmond’s rash pledge for all of Scotland’s electricity to come from renewables by 2020.
The controversial scheme has returned to the top of the Dundee agenda after Forth Energy this week published its long-awaited air quality assessment of the Stannergate area to support its bid to build a woodfuel renewable energy plant at the harbour.
The project was shelved in 2011 for more details about the amount of nitrogen dioxide released from the plant’s 100 metre chimney.
Forth Energy’s tests showed the amount of NO2 would be tiny, and equivalent to someone in the area cooking meals on gas rather than electricity 12 days a year.
Forty times as much NO2 came from traffic in the Stannergate area, and Forth Energy said this was no reason to prevent the plant from being built.
The biomass site would employ up to 500 people during construction, 70 per year thereafter, provide 86% of the city’s electricity and boost hopes for more green investment.
The proposal will be decided by Scottish ministers after listening to Dundee City Council, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and Scottish Natural Heritage.
FoE is unimpressed, with spokesman Andrew Llanwarne contending Dundonians may suffer from the First Minister’s bold call for more renewable energy.
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